It is often advantageous to couple different power sources together to supply a greater quantity of power than achievable by any individual source. For example, electrochemical cells are often coupled together to form electrochemical cell systems (i.e., batteries). In some electrochemical cell systems, it may be advantageous to control each electrochemical cell therein, or subsets of the electrochemical cells therein, so as to increase overall system efficiency in supplying power to a load. For example, where one or more electrochemical cells (e.g., grouped into modules) in the electrochemical cell system fail or experience a performance drop relative to the other electrochemical cells or modules, it may be desirable to attempt to equalize currents between different cells, while sharing power between the modules. In particular, generally equal module lifespan across the system may be based more on the current draw associated with each module than on the total energy or power supplied by the module. Such a configuration may facilitate a uniform replacement schedule for modules in the system by generally equalizing the lifespans of each of the modules of the system.
Conventionally, to share currents across electrochemical cells, slave cells or modules are tied to a master cell or module, so that the master cell or module establishes the current draw for the system. Where the master cell or module fails or experiences other performance degradation, however, the entire system's performance may correspondingly degrade. Among other disadvantages, this conventional method fails to maintain the independence of modules.
Accordingly, the disclosure of the present application endeavors to accomplish these and other results.